The E8 Network of Expertise for the Global Environment
Development of renewables
HYDRO-QUÉBEC
Hydro-Quebec is strongly supporting the development of windpower. In 2012, when all current projects are built (almost 1500 MW), Quebec will be, per capita, the second largest windpower producer in the world (after Denmark).
SCOTTISHPOWER
ScottishPower’s strong commitment to developing and providing renewable energy is evidenced by the company’s status as the leading developer of wind in both the UK and US in 2004.
Market-leading activity
- ScottishPower is the largest wind energy developer in the UK and we are on track to achieve a wind energy portfolio of at least 1,000 MW by 2010, with a development pipeline of some 3,000 MW.
- In the US, PPM is a leading wholesaler of green energy products and is on track to deliver 2,300 MW of new capacity by 2010. The company has 831 MW of wind capacity under its control and projects totalling 574 MW are due to be completed by the end of 2005, taking PPM’s wind portfolio to 1,405 MW. In December 2004, PPM acquired the northeast US developer, Atlantic Renewable Energy Corporation. This purchase increased the company’s renewable energy development pipeline to approximately 9,000 MW, stretching across the US from California to New York.
- ScottishPower’s US regulated utility PacifiCorp (which announced a sale to Mid-American Energy Holdings in May 2005) has also taken a leading industry position on renewable energy and included 1,400 MW of new renewable energy in its Integrated Resource Plan – one of the largest commitments to renewable energy to be made by a US utility.
The Drive for Renewables
Market mechanisms are playing a role in driving investment in renewable energy. In the UK, the Renewables Obligation (RO), which requires suppliers to source 15.4% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2015, is designed to support Government targets for renewable energy. The UK Government has an aspirational target to achieve 20% renewables by 2020. In both countries, carbon constraints are taken into account when considering future investments. PacifiCorp was one of the first US utilities to include a “carbon adder” in its Integrated Resource Plan process. The company builds in a notional carbon cost of $8 per ton when evaluating new resources to meet customer demand.
Wind is currently the most advanced of the new renewable technologies. It is cost effective, within the Renewables Obligation in the UK and by the federal production tax credit and all Renewable Portfolio Standards arrangements in the US. The technology is reliable, with high availability and strong performance in meeting or exceeding expected generation output.
Managing Developments
To ensure proper management of the windfarm developments, ScottishPower has a Windfarm Sustainable Development Policy that sets out the guiding principles in developing and operating windfarms as well as a Windfarm Biodiversity Conservation Strategy
In addition to the generation investments, ScottishPower plans to invest at least £400 million in reinforcements to the transmission and distribution system in south and central Scotland to support new renewable energy developments.
Other technologies
ScottishPower is engaged in a range of new and renewable technologies projects, including:
- Offshore Wind – ScottishPower is part of a joint venture with Shell and Elsam to develop a windfarm with up to 90 turbines at Shell Flats off the Blackpool coastline. In December 2003 ScottishPower, in partnership with Shell and Eurus, was offered the option by the Crown Estate to investigate siting up to 500 MW of wind capacity offshore at Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. Surveys and consultations continue, though construction is not expected to occur before 2009.
- Wave Power – ScottishPower has partnered on a large-scale trial of wave power, in association with Ocean Power Delivery (OPD), designers and manufacturers of the Pelamis Wave energy Converter and Amec, a company with wide experience in marine engineering. The project is assessing the technical and commercial viability of a demonstration project.
- Biomass – In 2004/05 ScottishPower introduced the co-firing of biomass fuels at coal-fired power stations in the UK. Cockenzie Power Station has been successfully co-firing a mix of sawdust along with coal, up to a proportion of 10%.
TEPCO
Development of Renewable Energies
TEPCO is facilitating the expansion of renewable energies in various ways. Under Japan’s Renewable Portfolio Standard Law, TEPCO will be required to generate 4.15 TWh in 2010 (estimated to be around 1.35% of generation) from renewable energies excluding hydropower larger than 1MW. This is a challenging target and TEPCO is making every effort to meet this goal.
Purchase of renewable power from customer utilities
TEPCO purchases surplus production from its customers’ solar and wind power equipment. As a rule, TEPCO purchases the power at the same rate that is charged for it to facilitate the development of renewable energies. TEPCO purchases wind power on a stable, long-term basis from commercial wind power plants. The following graph illustrates the steep increase of TEPCO’s purchase from renewable energies.
Green Power Fund
TEPCO, with other utility companies, initiated the Green Power Fund, operated by the Great-Kanto Industrial Advancement Center (GIAC) in 2000. Under this programme, contributions of 500 yen (about US$5) per unit are collected monthly from customers with their bills to fund solar and renewable energy facilities. TEPCO combines each customer contribution with a matching gift and has also supported the operation of the Green Power Fund since its establishment.
At the end of FY2004, the number of subscriptions was 18,394 with a total of 21,528 contribution units. TEPCO’s contribution has totalled 489 million yen (about $4.3 million) in the five years since the program’s inception.
Investment in Renewable energy projects
Through a subsidiary company, Euros Energy Holdings, TEPCO is involved in several wind farms over the world. The company has a total of 1,881 windmills at 18 locations in four nations outside Japan (the US, UK, Spain and Italy) and nine in Japan for a combined capacity of 1,019MW. This makes Eurus Holdings one of the world’s largest wind power developers (as of March 31, 2005).
e7 Group
Sustainable Rural Electrification in Indonesia
In 2000, the e7 completed the Indonesia Renewable Energy Supply Systems, a rural electrification project undertaken as an Activity Implemented Jointly registered with UNFCCC.
Between 1997 and 2000, socio-economic, financial and technical studies were implemented in a remote part of Indonesia. A total of four micro hydropower plants, one photovoltaic/wind-hybrid system and 195 solar home systems were then installed. These facilities generate about one million kWh per year in total, provided a limited amount of electricity to eight remote communities, touching roughly 5000 people in the province of Nusa Tenggara Timur and South Sulawesi.
One of the major objectives of the project was to develop and introduce an innovative, sustainable, and decentralised management concept for rural electrification that could be replicated elsewhere. Independent, village-run micro-utilities were created to manage the electrification schemes, assuming responsibility for technical aspects, operations and maintenance, and financial management.
With the assistance of non-governmental organisations and users groups, the e7 provided a wide range of training to enhance the capacity of the micro-utilities and to raise general awareness for electricity use and its benefits among the users. The aims of these training sessions were to ensure a high acceptance of the electrification schemes and to create conditions under which commercially oriented rural electrification schemes could be developed and maintained with a high level of grassroots participation and user responsibility.
In essence, the e7 sought to address the socioeconomic intricacies of rural electrification to sufficiently strengthen the local capacity to ensure the long-term sustainability of the facilities, integrating concerns for economic viability, environmental protection and social benefits.
In this way, villagers in remote areas were encouraged to routinely pay for electricity services. An electricity tariff was set to cover all costs of operation and maintenance, management and replacement of system components over the installations’ lifetime, while avoiding the need for ongoing subsidies for system operation, a minimum ’must’ in terms of rural electrification. District governments assist the village-based micro-utilities in managing revenues.
In 2001, the e7 decided to embark on a two-year multidisciplinary monitoring programme to evaluate the effects of the training and capacity building that were provided, analyse the ancillary socioeconomic development resulting from the technology transfer, document greenhouse gas emissions reduction and follow-up the performance of the institutional framework and technical expertise in their critical relation to the project’s financial sustainability.
In July 2002, the e7 Indonesia project received the 2002 ASEAN Energy Award for Excellence in Project Management of New and Renewable Sources of Energy for the micro-hydropower systems installed in Sulawesi. The e7 Indonesia project has also received awards in recognition of its excellence in multi-stakeholder partnerships and project management.
The project’s two-year monitoring phase was completed in 2003, and following the positive results of the monitoring, the Regional Government in the South-East Indonesian province of Nusa Tenggara Timur has decided to electrify more remote villages with 1000 solar home systems, applying the e7’s model.
Hydropower in Nicaragua
Nicaragua, one of the poorest countries in the world, is on UNDP’s list of priority countries. In the municipality of Wiwilí, located in an isolated region of north-west Nicaragua, diesel generation units currently provide electricity to approximately 650 households. Unexploited hydro-electric resources exist in this mountainous region.
At the request of the UNDP, the e7 is developing an investment project to build and develop a mini hydro power plant and thus reduce the reliability on diesel fuel. The project also aims to develop and promote rural electrification, and is a potential Clean Development Mechanism project under the Kyoto Protocol.The e7 seeks to form a joint venture with the local electric company to develop the project. The main Nicaraguan governmental entities have expressed their support to the initiative. In a Memorandum of Understanding signed in October 2003, the Government of Nicaragua, the UNDP and the e7 agreed to co-operate and mobilise all necessary resources for the following objectives:
- Make Nicaragua less dependent on the diesel fuel,
- Reduce atmospheric emissions of fossil-fuel emissions and greenhouse gases on a local and global scale,
- Promote small-scale, power generation and distribution systems with renewable energies,
- Protect bio-diversity,
- Increase the local population’s access to renewable energy and energy services,
- Demonstrate a model of replication in the region,
- Develop public awareness of effective demand side management and energy conservation practices
The installed facility, a 1.3 MW hydro power plant, would be connected to the national electricity grid both to allow the sale of any surplus energy generated and to ensure a backup in case of generation failure. A local network would be constructed to supply electricity to approximately 1800 ’urban’ households and a majority of homes in the countryside.
Rural Electrification in Madagascar
In collaboration with the UN Global Compact, UNDP, the Government of Madagascar, GTZ (German Development Agency) and Electricité de Madagascar, the e7 is currently undertaking a feasibility study for a 4 MW hydroelectric power plant, transmission and distribution and an extensive rural electrification project in the north-east of Madagascar.
Power Desalination in the Maghreb
The e7 has joined MEDREC (Center for Renewable Energies in the Mediterranean, funded by the Italian Ministry of Environment) and SONEDE (Société National d’Exploitation et de Distribution des Eaux - Tunisia) in an attempt to satisfy drinking water needs in central Tunisia through the construction of a desalination plant. One of the three desalination units is to be supplied by wind power, while the other two units will be grid connected. If feasibility studies are favourable, the e7 will provide the wind system, SONEDE the desalination system and MEDREC financing and capacity building.
Wind Power in Kenya
The e7, in partnership with the Kenyan Government, KenGen and Kenya Power & Light Company (KPLC), is currently investigating a possible renewable energy project in Kenya. A small village (Mpeketoni), which has a diesel generation facility and a network, has been identified. The project will seek to offset the diesel plant with wind, increase capacity and increase network efficiency. The project has a high potential for replicability in Kenya and throughout Sub Saharan Africa.
Global environment and sustainable energy development
The e8, comprising ten leading electricity companies from the G8 countries, was formed in 1992 following the Rio Summit to examine and co-operate on major global electricity-related issues, with an emphasis on the global environment and sustainable energy development.